DOWN THE PUB
ROTT award winner Age: 32 Lives: Bicester
He’s a rally fan
“For many years I’d been spectating and marshalling and I started working with Hagerty Insurance last year. When we were approached by the HRCR to sponsor the Clubmans Championship I was asked if I’d like to go rallying. The Escort Mk1 is owned by a client and they asked if we’d like the car for the year.”
He did six events this year
“We recommissioned the car and it has done 12 rallies this year. The car has done 11 of the 13 rounds and I did five of the rounds plus the Rally of the Tests. That was the icing on the cake for me as two years ago I was in Chepstow spectating and I didn’t expect to be doing the event two years later.”
ROTT was the big challenge
“The Rally of the Tests was something else. It was so tiring. I’ve done five single-day HRCR events and you think you’ve done a day, but then you’ve got another evening section to do and another day tomorrow. I had Andrew Duerden with me and he is a very competent navigator. We didn’t miss a control and we did every test.”
He was top novice
“My goal was to see the finish in Chester and to wake up Sunday morning leading the class by 12 seconds was amazing. We dropped to second in class by the finish but to finish top novice was fantastic. It was quite emotional driving into Chester with the history of the rally.”
The car did give them a scare though
“On Saturday evening we wrong-slotted and the back of the car dropped into a ditch and bent the exhaust. That cost us a minute at a control. On Sunday morning the car wouldn’t start as the starter motor had failed. We bump-started it and only turned the engine off at lunchtime. The head-gasket was on the way out by the finish.”
It was a tough rally
“You need to do some single-day events before doing the Rally of the Tests to know what to expect. You need to keep your head and get around and a navigator who has got some experience. The information just keeps coming through the window. It wasn’t until Monday that I realised how exhausted I was.”